EL PASO — A ruling by a U.S. immigration court could clear the way for other asylum seekers from Mexico, an El Paso attorney said Tuesday.

For years, asylum seekers have argued that they have no choice but to flee their country because of the government’s inability or unwillingness to protect them from organized criminal groups and the violence they spawn, including extortion.

While Mexicans have been granted asylum before, this case is unusual because the local court also considered extortion with the threat of violence — referred to as extortion-plus — as grounds for relief under the law, an unusual step that could pave the way for others in similar circumstances in cities throughout the U.S.

“The granting of Mexican asylum to victims of extortion is rare and unusual, as it is generally considered mere criminal activity not covered by the traditional definition of ‘refugee,’” attorney Carlos Spector said in a statement.

In an interview, Spector added, “This has political, not necessarily legal, precedence, but for the asylum seeker living in, say, Houston or Dallas, this is significant because it shows a growing trend, an inclination by immigration judges to take a closer look at extortion-plus cases. That’s what’s so novel about this case.”

The immigration court ruled that Christián Chaidez, 31, a native of Ciudad Juárez, should be granted political asylum after the assassination of 11 family members who had refused to pay extortion to criminal groups operating in the border city across from El Paso. They ended up paying with their lives.

The 11 massacred family members ranged in age from 24 to 58, with seven of them killed in one day, Oct. 17, 2010.

“The gunmen or sicarios, as we call them, came back and realized there were more people inside,” Chaidez said. “So they just went inside and killed everyone, shooting them in the head, including my grandma.”

The year 2010 was one of the bloodiest in Juárez, when more than 3,000 people were killed, earning the city the reputation of being one of the most dangerous in the hemisphere.

Traditionally, to win political asylum, foreign citizens must prove to a judge that they have been persecuted in the past or have a well-founded fear of persecution based on five specific statutory grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Winning asylum has been difficult for Mexicans.

“As soon as they hear the word ‘extortion,’ they say it’s not part of the rules,” Spector said. “So this is a case where extortion-plus worked in our favor.”